Stairs or ladders can be counted among prototypes dating back to the birth of mankind. The earliest images we know are from the Paleolithic era, 65,000 years ago. Ladders and stairs figure in fairy tales, fables and folk expressions, poetry and myths, as well as classical and modern literature. They appear in ceremonies and rituals as well as on the stage. The obvious narrative element has inspired artists, architects, directors and psychoanalysts to study stairs and ladders in depth. They impart a wide variety of meanings to stairs, building on their traditional form and initial function; the degree of depth and actualization of those meanings depend on the religious or social context of the work. The religious context applies to such themes as the ladder as a link spatially connecting the secular world to heaven; the ladder as the path of or obstacle to spiritual ascent or liberation. In the societal context, on the other hand, the functional structure of stairs determines movement within architecture and society. Stairs provide a convenient way to convey the hierarchy and position of the individual in society, or to describe his evolution, referring to personal or socio-historical memory.

At the same time, many artists focus solely on exploring the possibilities of the very form of stairs. Going beyond the given static structure, they treat stairs as malleable plastic material for their experiments, often creating absurd staircases.

The Biblical story of Jacob’s Dream has long fascinated artists both religious and secular, from icon painters to Marc Chagall. The St. Petersburg artist Vladimir Tsivin has treated the subject extensively.

In Tsivin’s work the ladder Jacob sleeps under is of triangular form, suggesting a stepladder or a tent (V1: 80, 81); perhaps the shelter it provides indicates God’s protectiveness towards man. Or perhaps the tent, omnipresent in nomadic cultures like that of the Prophets, suggests the inevitability of the spiritual path that each of us must travel to reach our heights.

Anselm Kiefer often includes ladders in his works and in the German Romantic tradition seeks the perfect symbol to imbue his works with deep philosophical meaning. The titles of his paintings “Seraphim” (V2: 342) and “First” (V2: 343) refer to Biblical texts, one of the central motifs of his oeuvre. In Kiefer’s works, stairs and ladders are often reborn from the wreckage of the old world in accordance with established divine law. The ladder in “Seraphim” is the highest point, the culminating chord sounding in the void. This note does not oppose chaos; on the contrary, it is constructed from the elements of chaos. By mixing paints with dirt, sand, dust, straw, rusty metal and clay, the artist creates an archetypal image: a ladder, ideally capable of structuring chaos thanks to its structure, which arranges space horizontally and vertically. And just as God created man in his own image and gave him the right to create and destroy, so the artist combines these two poles in his paintings. Kiefer is acutely aware of each individual’s responsibility of for the fate of all mankind and his works often address the theme of war, destruction and subsequent rebirth. In many of those works ladders serve as harbingers of a new, mysterious life.